Solomon. Marilyn Bishop Shaw
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Название: Solomon
Автор: Marilyn Bishop Shaw
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Учебная литература
Серия: Florida Historical Fiction for Youth
isbn: 9781561645855
isbn:
Lela staggered to a stop at the sound of a click and a voice. “Oh, girlie, I’ll come and get you, all right.” His pistol was pointed straight at her. Moses and Solomon froze. This was trouble for sure.
The intruder was joined by two more who looked just as dirty and mean as the one who had spoken. The leader took a step toward Lela, taunting her with the pistol. “Oh, aye, my little chocolate girl. Ye are a little beauty, ain’t ye?” The barrel of the pistol traced the edge of Lela’s cheek and defiance shone from her emerald eyes. “Mmm, sure some pure blood in you, ain’t they?” He turned to one of the other men. “She could ’bout pass fer one of them señoritas, couldn’t she, boys?.”
“She sure ’nough could, Pork,” another lowlife growled. Moses didn’t stop to think if it was right or not, he just spoke. “That ain’t your little girl, mister, she my wife,” he said as he put a protective arm in front of Solomon, “and the mother of this youngun.” He hoped these men had some care about them. In his heart, he doubted they did.
The two observers snorted at Moses’ attempt to protect Lela. She could smell the one called Pork. Good name, she thought, he smells enough like a hog. They were all filthy and unshaven. From their looks, they could be farmers, Rebel fugitives, or drunks. The two men stepped in and took Lela’s arms as Pork turned his attention and his pistol onto Moses.
“Looks like you ain’t in much position to hep her, now ere ye, boy? Best ye just sit polite-like over there and leave us to our party.” He aimed the gun upward, directly into Moses’ face.
The startling crack of the whip snatched the gun from Pork’s hand much to his surprise. Lela broke from her captors when their attention was drawn to the source of the ambush. In an instant, the horseman dismounted between the Freemans and the three scalawags, with the whip firmly in control of the trio. “Mr. Freeman, are you all alright?” His eyes didn’t leave the three outlaws.
Pork spit and grunted, “Mister? Mister Freeman?” The whip’s hold tightened even more. The men were still and silent.
Solomon was the only one who managed to speak. “Mr. Harker, you done saved us sure.” His stunned parents could only nod agreement.
“Solomon,” Harker asked, “do you have some rope in the wagon?”
“Yessir, plenty,” he answered, racing toward the wagon before Harker even finished his question.
Moses and Pete tied each man securely to a pine tree, working in silence. Moses gave the last knot a good, strong jerk. “I tell you, Mr. Harker. I can’t say I ever been gladder to see a body in my whole life. We owe you a debt, sir. Don’t know how we’ll repay you, but we owe you sure.”
“I can’t think of better people to help out. It was just what needed doing, is all. You don’t owe me a thing.”
“What are we gonna to do with these men, Mr. Harker?” asked Solomon.
“Well, Solomon, I don’t want to get into keeping the law; don’t know that there is any law hereabouts. There’s plenty more of these Rebel renegades and deserters. Why don’t we just leave these three to stew a while until their friends find them?”
“Whatever you think, Mr. Harker,” Moses said, glad he didn’t have to make the decision. “I just know I don’t want to see their kind again. No, sir, don’t want to see this again.” As Moses moved his family toward the wagon, he heard a low gravelly growl as Pete spoke to the scoundrels. He couldn’t hear the words, but felt pretty sure their pack would steer clear of Freeman territory.
The Freemans in their wagon followed Harker to the west away from the river they’d followed on their trip south, trusting him to get them away from trouble the quickest way. As they traveled, he explained how he’d come upon them. “I skirted around a pretty sizable camp on south of here. Easy enough to tell it wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”
Pete took a deep breath and continued. “I’d heard of these bunches but didn’t quite believe the tales. They’re mostly Reb deserters come down this far to save themselves from fighting. Others were dissatisfied with the outcome of the war and came to preserve their, ah” Harker paused, struggling to find the right words, “their so-called purity. Let’s just say the camp looked about as bad as those three. I thought I’d avoided them altogether, until I came on a wagon with what looked like bags of supplies on it. I heard the voices and knew somebody was in trouble. Didn’t know it was you until I got in the middle of it.”
In just a few minutes they stopped at another wagon loaded with all manner of supplies. Harker leaned forward in his saddle and said very formally, “Mr. Freeman, I expect those men owe you and your family an apology and I can’t think of a better one than to offer you some supplies for the winter.”
Lela’s face and voice were firm, “Mr. Harker, that’s stealing. I won’t bide stealing. “
“Begging your pardon, Miss Lela,” he chuckled. “ I wish you wouldn’t think of it that way. I reckon it’s not stealing if you’re accepting it as an apology from those who stole it to start with! Don’t you get it in your head that these men have any honesty about them—they don’t.”
Solomon had scrambled down from their wagon into the other and called out its contents. “Oh, Mama, there’s sugar and corn meal, and real coffee! Wouldn’t you and Papa like some of that?” Moses and Lela looked wistfully at the wagon while the boy continued investigating. “Oh, look here, it’s some cans of,” he struggled to read the labels, “p . . . pea . . . pea-ches. Peaches! And milk!”
Moses had quietly joined his son and they spotted the red at the same time. A knowing look passed between father and son and they pulled the bolt of red calico from the bottom of the wagon together. “Solomon, we don’t have no use for such as this, do we, son?”
“Don’t know, Papa, I just don’t know. We need something to cover the opening of our new-built house,” Solomon said, leading the game on.
Moses stroked the cotton fabric. “This ain’t none too thick, though. I don’t know if it would do much for that.” The fabric was tossed back into the bottom of the wagon. “Guess we’ll just leave this behind.” He knew Lela must be biting her tongue nearly in two by now but couldn’t look at her and hold the game.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, Papa. We got ’most a wagon full anyway. No need hauling stuff we can’t make use of.” Their game was interrupted when Pete Harker couldn’t contain his laughter any longer. He burst into a howl and joined right in.
“Miss Lela, if those two men of yours aren’t the worst for seeing what’s in front of them, I don’t know what to say. I can’t imagine that calico doing a thing in this world better than being made into a dress for you.” Lela clasped her hands to her breast and smiled at her men. Harker continued, “Fact is, the cloth looks all right now, but wrapped around you, it’ll be downright beautiful. Isn’t that so, Moses?”
Moses and Solomon couldn’t contain themselves any longer. “Oh, Lela, honey. You know full well me and Solomon ain’t gonna let this here cloth waste when you can make it so purty.” He turned to grin at Pete. “And Mr. СКАЧАТЬ